Hope Lake

Uncompahgre National Forest

(map link)

The Forest Service seems to be uncertain if it is Lake Hope or Hope Lake, but more certain that it is the Hope Lake Trail. It consistently marks the road up to the trailhead as a 4x4 road, so I parked in a turnout at the bottom and started up, getting increasingly grumpy about how it is a rather good road with a loose rock here or there. I chatted with some campers about how it was probably great all the way up, but they'd gotten to their rather brilliantly picturesque site and been sufficiently mesmerized by it not to continue on. Talking with them got me sufficiently emboldened to actually stick out my thumb at the truck that came by as I finished the chat. When you're going 5 MPH anyway, it's easy to stop, and he did. Greg was going for the hike too and actually wouldn't mind having a buddy. The road promptly turned to something it wouldn't be wise to try the Scion on. With good judgement, I probably could make it, but there would have been more than the usual risk involved. The best judgement was not trying.

Some of the road has views. Sheep Mountain is on the right, but San Miguel Peak hides behind the pointy ridges.

So getting to the trailhead ended up a little faster than expected, which is always good when rain is expected for the afternoon. This is a popular trail and the little bit of parking next to the sign was already occupied. There is enough room for a bit more on the road and a small parking lot has been built just short of the trailhead. There was plenty of room on the midweek day, but who knows what the weekend or a day too near a festival in Teluride might look like.

The well marked trailhead to Hope Lake.

The trail initially wanders through trees with some little bits of view. The crossing at Poverty Gulch took a little attention to keep the feet dry. Trees, not much bigger than sticks, were placed across it. I went for these with walking sticks to help while Greg showed there was a more sensible rock hop further up. Lake Fork was split into many smaller pieces that could be handled more easily.

Upstream at the Lake Fork crossing.

These, I am pretty sure, become the waterfalls I saw from Sheep Mountain, the larger being Lake Fork. It is a long way down from where the trail crosses, which is significantly higher than where the trail is shown on the Forest Service map. I wasn't ready to go trying any cross country to see it. It didn't look like particularly easy country to cross. There are lots of other waterfalls to ponder anyway.

The most impressive of the waterfalls visible from the trail.

That waterfall is part of a long cascade. San Miguel Peak is the one on the left.

There are other nice waterfalls above that one.

The big waterfall is spring fed, and it must be quite an impressive spring too. Smaller waterfalls and cascades were coming down closer cliffs.

A pair of small waterfalls coming over the nearby cliff.

Water in a narrow canyon along the way.

There's a bunch of little switchbacks to climb to get to the lake. Unfortunately there are a bunch of extra trails cutting those with a few spots of trail falling away because of the inappropriate (and illegal) switchback cutting.

Almost there.

The valley behind with a couple of those homes further up the road visible near the shadow to the right.

A rather beautifully variegated paintbrush.

It took a little more wiggles through the open valley full of flowers, over a rise with a puddle of a pond full of water, and down the other side to get to Hope Lake. The first look was, well, not exactly hopeful.

Hope Lake seems low even compared to the very low low water mark.

We sat and ate a little and pondered the meaning of such a low lake. It must be running out a plug hole at the bottom. The area is in draught, but this is almost dry. Cascades of water are pouring in from springs high on the mountain. It is not quite so much as coming down the other valley, but still a lot. I wonder how San Miguel can pour out so much water so high up.

Hope Lake with San Miguel Peak centered behind it and a couple cascades streaming out of holes high on the mountain.

Miners built up a rather high dam to increase the lake storage. The white line looks to be marked in feet for measuring the height of the lake.

I had planned to probably go on to the saddle above the lake and get the new view there. The sign at the bottom says it is only 0.7 miles. Greg, who had been to a few of the harder to reach spots (like that big spring) but not to the saddle was game to go on.

A bladderpod with some conjoined insects hanging out beneath.

The new view, another glacier carved valley.

It was an excellent new view, although the other view had spoiled me enough to rate it, well, not quite as good. We did try to give it its due and there were rewards. We also spotted quite a few hints of the mining that was once performed here.

A barely visible, nearly missed, waterfall that is contained in the picture above.

I almost forgot to look for the benchmark the map claim is at the pass. It was in the rocks next to a prospect.

The benchmark is stamped "5S 1946" but the found elevation is on the map: 12445 feet.

The weather was very visibly turning toward rain, so we got moving downward among sprinkles that came and went.

Hope Lake and the trail down from the pass.

The color of the water seems to change with the moods of the weather, but always looked like glacial silt from the long gone glaciers was suspended in it.

We paused at the low lake again as the weather paused in getting bad, but not long. Down we went as people continued to come up in the little bit of rain.

Vermillion Peak that dominates the valley below the lake seemed to glow particularly red in the weather.

Looking down on a wind swept Trout Lake.

Parry's primrose and a watercress carpeting anyplace they can in the water.

The rain got harder as we got to the trees, but still not hard enough to more than contemplate if a rain coat might be needed eventually. We had the trees by then anyway.

The cascades of rocks off Vermillion Peak look like tailings, especially as they are a different color, but are probably not. The trail passes well below and looking up to those cliffs.

Columbines love the rocky area of this avalanche chute/oversized stream bed that the trail flirts with.

So down we went in light rain that would get a little heavier for short times wondering at the people who were still coming up. Just getting started now, and in the rain? But we'd actually already weathered about the worst the day was going to throw when we reached the trailhead still without any raincoats out. Then I even got to have a ride back down over the two miles of rough and not so rough road.

*photo album*




©2022 Valerie Norton
Written 24 Jul 2022